Zuo Shaoyang was pleasantly surprised, thinking that could it be that this war, which lasted for more than two months, was only ended because of the secret letter he found? Hurriedly bowed and said, "Don't dare to be." ”

The general said: "Look! Sit down and talk! ”

The guards outside the door hurriedly brought two round stools and placed them next to the door. The two sat down with their buttocks tilted, leaning over.

Seeing that Zuo Shaoyang and the two of them were confused, the general smiled and said: "Xiao Langzhong, the letter you sent last time that was found in the jacket was written by General Feng Li to this king. It is a letter asking for the surrender of Zhao'an. It was written almost two months ago, two days before the battle between the two armies outside the West City. General Feng and General Xue intended to surrender at that time, but they were worried about the mutiny, so they sent their cronies to send this letter to the king in civilian clothes, wanting to discuss the matter of Zhao'an's surrender, but unexpectedly, the messenger did not return, and on the third day, our army happened to organize a large-scale counteroffensive of the whole army, causing the two generals to mistakenly think that our army had no intention of recruiting An, causing this misunderstanding, and then did not send a secret envoy to contact, just besieged our city, expecting that our army would know that it would be difficult to make peace, and the war lasted for more than two months. Now you know from your mouth that the messenger was snatched by the old demon monk and killed at the top of the Ghost Valley Peak. ”

Only then did Zuo Shaoyang realize that the short jacket he was wearing was a plain clothes worn by the secret envoy sent by the rebel leader Feng Li, and the secret envoy put the secret letter in the mezzanine of the short jacket, but somehow met the demon monk Zen and died, and Zen did not find the secret letter in the mezzanine, and threw the short jacket in the box, which happened to be worn back by Zuo Shaoyang.

He now also knows why the rebels have been surrounding Hezhou and not attacking the city, why they can eliminate a large number of officials and troops but do not take the initiative to attack, why they only kill and do not kill, why they do not let the people in the city flee but allow the people to go out of the city to dig wild vegetables below the mountain, but the original purpose is not to provoke the imperial court by annihilating a large number of officials and troops, and at the same time they want to take advantage of the lack of food for the officials and soldiers to force the officials and soldiers to agree to Zhao'an, and obtain greater benefits in Zhao'an. Originally, this matter could be solved quickly, but I didn't expect the secret envoy to be plundered, but the official army happened to organize a major counteroffensive by mistake, preparing to annihilate the rebels. This made the rebels misunderstand that the imperial court did not want to recruit peace, and used the siege to trap the official army.

But Feng Li and the others did not give up, but they did not send secret envoys to discuss the matter of Zhao'an, but they still surrounded the official army, but they did not attack, and the official army was unable to counterattack, and the two sides were in a stalemate for no less than two months.

After the general got the letter handed over by Zuo Shaoyang, he heard about it again, and then he knew the truth, and sent a secret envoy to contact Feng Li overnight, and the two sides held a Zhao'an talk, and after some bargaining, finally reached an agreement on Zhao'an, the rebels accepted Zhao'an and surrendered, and the imperial court pardoned all the rebels for the crime of rebellion, and the generals of the whole army were not dismissed, and the original posts were retained. The rebel army was reorganized, and part of the main force was led by the official army and transferred to northern Xinjiang to participate in the conquest of the Turkic army. The rest of the rebels were scattered and assigned to the frontier garrisons. Feng Li, Xue Wanche and other high-ranking generals of the army returned to the capital to face the saint, and the emperor re-called them.

Zuo Shaoyang listened to the general's explanation, and then he knew the reason.

The general said: "After this war, the people of Hezhou were tortured, according to the statistics of the Hezhou government, a total of tens of thousands of hungry people's bodies were buried, and more than 1,000 officers and soldiers of our army starved to death. What a disaster! ”

Speaking of this, Feng Li and Xue Wanche were a little gloomy and bowed their heads silently. Zuo Shaoyang couldn't help but sigh that creation made people, but he didn't expect that the delay of such a secret letter would cause tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Hezhou to starve to death.

The general said: "Xiao Langzhong made the first contribution to quell this war, and he is also a model of our army's support, treating the wounded at the expense of his life, giving medicine and porridge to help the victims, saving the lives of countless people, this king is very appreciative, this time I want to reward you!" ”

The general waved his hand, and the leader of the guards behind him, Fu Team, took out a red gift slip from his arms, walked in front of Zuo Shaoyang, handed it to him with both hands, and said with a smile on his face: "This is a reward from the general, I was originally going to send it to you after I finished here, but I didn't think you would come over, just right." Take it. ”

Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly took it, and after unfolding it, he watched it with his father Zuo Gui, and saw that the gift list read: "Fifty buckets of rice seeds, fifty buckets of polished rice noodles, fifty chickens, ducks and fish (tails), five pigs, and two ploughing cattle." ”

The happy eyes of the two widened, these things, in other places where food and clothing are worry-free, may not be worth much, but in the famine Hezhou, it is a huge fortune!

The general Le smiled and said: "This reward is a little lighter, because you need to help the people, so I can't give you more things." - Okay, do you have any more requests? ”

Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly sneered and said: "No, the general has rewarded so much, and the villain doesn't know how to thank him." What's not to be satisfied with? ”

"Well, if you have any difficulties, you can also tell this king."

This reminded Zuo Shaoyang, glanced at the general, saw him smiling and groaning, suddenly became bold, bowed down and said: "Our Hezhou is a field with few people, there are not many people who farm, this famine, and starved to death tens of thousands of people, and no one rents to cultivate, seeing that the spring ploughing season is about to pass, delaying the agricultural time, this year can be confiscated, now the field tax is high, if there is no harvest, I don't know how to pay taxes in the future." ”

The general nodded: "Well...... this is indeed a very practical problem. ”

Zuo Shaoyang was encouraged, his confidence was greatly increased, and he hurriedly said: "The official army will release porridge to help the people, it is estimated that it will not last for several months, and the people in Hezhou have no food in their homes. Not only will the people suffer more, but the large number of displaced people will also increase the burden on the local people. ”

"That's right, what do you have to do?"

Zuo Shaoyang arched his hand and said: "It would be great if the general could assign soldiers to help the people of Hezhou spring ploughing." -- It won't take long, two days is enough, all you need to do is help turn the ground, break the soil, build the ridges for future irrigation, and then sow the rice seeds. This is the heaviest farm work. As long as crops grow in the fields and grain is properly relieved, people can keep it. They will go back to the fields and continue farming. ”

"Very good!" The general smiled and nodded, and turned his head to look at Feng Li and Xue Wanche, who had been silent next to him, "What do the two generals think?" ”

Feng Li bowed his hand and said: "Back to the general, this famine is mainly caused by the siege of the city by the soldiers of our army, and the people suffer from famine because of this, and our army should help the people get through the difficulties." Zuo Gongzi's suggestion is very good, if the general agrees, the junior general will immediately organize the whole army to cultivate all the fertile land that has not yet been cultivated in Hezhou. ”

Xue Wanche muttered: "Sending soldiers to help plough and sow seeds for two days, there is no problem with this, it's just ......"

The general frowned: "What is the difficulty of General Xue?" ”

"What the last general feared was that there were already few people in Hezhou, and most of the fields had been abandoned, and the famine of these two months had killed a number of strong laborers, and the labor force was even more insufficient. I'm afraid that there will be more abandoned land. Although there are no suitable tools, tens of thousands of our troops have gone into battle and only ploughed and sowed, but it is not a difficult task, and it should be completed. But what about weeding, irrigation, harvesting, and so on? With so many fields, there is not enough manpower to take care of them, and if the seeds are sown, they may not be able to harvest the grain, and if there is no one to take care of them, they may not even be able to harvest the rice seeds. ”

"Hmm." The general nodded: "It makes sense. Raising his face and looking at Zuo Shaoyang again, there was a sneer at the corner of his mouth, as if he was laughing at Zuo Shaoyang's disregard for his tail.

Zuo Shaoyang had already thought about this section, and hurriedly said: "General, I don't know if there is still a rebellion in my Datang now?" ”

The general snorted and said, "General Feng and General Xue have abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, and there are no more thieves in the whole country." Right? Two generals. ”

The reason why the general asked this question was because his army had been surrounded here for two months, and there was no news from the outside world, so he did not know if there were any rebellions elsewhere.

Feng Li and Xue Wanche glanced at each other, and said together: "There are no other rebellions. ”

During the two months that the two of them besieged the general's army, they always paid attention to the situation in the whole country, and some military intelligence agents sent in various places to send news that several rebel forces that had rebelled before had either accepted Zhao'an or been annihilated, and that at present, only their rebel army was still active in the country, and now they also accepted Zhao'an, so the rebellion nationwide had all been quelled.

This news made the general overjoyed and couldn't suppress his joy.

Zuo Shaoyang asked again: "I don't know how the war with the Turks is going?" ”

The general's face sank: "This doesn't seem to be what you should inquire, right?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly arched his hand and said: "I don't want to spy on the military situation, I'm just thinking that if the country is already peaceful, if we win another major victory in the battle against the Turks and defeat the Turkic army." Then does my Datang still need so many troops? Do you want to disarm these armies and return them to the fields? ”

Zuo Shaoyang's inference comes from his understanding of the current military history, such as the total strength of our army after the end of the armistice to resist US aggression and aid Korea and the end of the domestic suppression of bandits, because in peacetime, there is no need to maintain a large army, otherwise the country will be overwhelmed. However, he did not understand the military system of the Tang Dynasty, which was implemented in the early days of the Sui Dynasty, and the soldiers were also farmers. There is no problem of disarmament in this military system, but under the situation of the government military system, after the war is over, the soldiers will indeed have to be disarmed and returned to the fields.

The general nodded and said: "General Ben understands what you mean, now there is no war in the country, although the battle against the Turks is only afraid that it will not be over for a while, but it is true that there is no need for so many troops to fight the Turks, most of the soldiers, especially the old and weak divisions, can be disarmed and returned to the field to make up for the lack of labor." But this requires the emperor's decision. After the general returned to the court, he would report the situation in Hezhou to the emperor's brother, send soldiers to keep Hezhou for farming, and at the same time immigrate to Hezhou. I think the emperor will definitely seriously consider this matter, and some of the problems can be solved. ”

(To be continued)